NEW YORK (AP) ― Fresh off his Oscar glory with “The Artist,’’ there’s no silence for Harvey Weinstein when it comes to his next film.

The famously bellicose producer is protesting the R rating received by a documentary his Weinstein Co. is releasing. “Bully,’’ directed by Lee Hirsch, is an examination of school bullying that follows five kids and families over the course of a school year.

It received the rating, which restricts kids under the age of 17 from seeing it without an accompanying adult, because of six expletives. Weinstein claims such a rating restricts the very audience the film can most benefit: high school teens.

The Weinstein Co. appealed the decision, but the Motion Picture Association of America, which oversees movie ratings, declined to lower the rating to a PG-13.

“I find it outrageous,’’ says Weinstein, who has long been renowned for his combativeness. “This is, on a personal level because of my own temper, a redemptive act for me.’’

“We’re hoping that smart people come to their senses,’’ he adds.

Weinstein has threatened to withdraw his future films from the MPAA rating system. But John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, has reminded him that such a tactic would result in theaters treating unrated films as NC-17 movies, which can kill a film’s artistic or commercial success.

“As a father of a 9-year-old child, I am personally grateful that (the Weinstein Co.) has addressed the important issue of bullying in such a powerful documentary,’’ Fithian wrote in a letter to Weinstein. “Yet were the MPAA and NATO to waive the ratings rules whenever we believed that a particular movie had merit, or was somehow more important than other movies, we would no longer be neutral parties applying consistent standards, but rather censors of content based on personal mores.’’

That leaves the makers of “Bully’’ with the question of whether to edit or bleep the expletives, which are part of the antagonistic behavior documented between kids in the film. Right now, Hirsch is declining to do that, and has the backing of Weinstein. The director says such editing would minimize the harsh realities of bullying.